


In A Yellow Wood

by emilyenrose



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-13
Updated: 2009-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 22:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilyenrose/pseuds/emilyenrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: The One Where Arthur Is Merlin's Paramour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In A Yellow Wood

**Author's Note:**

> This story is mostly ignipes' fault.

"-and I'll want you to draw me a bath the minute we get back," Arthur finished. "I'm not going to report to my father when I'm still covered in dust from the road."

"Yes, sire," Merlin said, rolling his eyes in a completely unneccessary and irritating way. Arthur did not glare at him because Arthur was a prince and making faces at servants was beneath his dignity. He looked straight ahead at the road and the gleaming towers of Camelot in the distance and only smirked to himself a little bit as he added, "Then go report to the duty torturer. Three hours in the stocks ought to do it. You've been the most insolent travelling companion I've ever had."

Merlin made a sound halfway between a sigh and a snort, but Arthur magnanimously didn't correct himself to 'four hours' even though he would have been well within his rights to do it. Instead he fixed his gaze on Camelot. If he squinted, he thought he could see the dragon pennants flying in the breeze from the top of the tallest tower. "It'll be good to be home," he said.

"Yes," agreed Merlin, "it will." Arthur looked over at him and they shared a glance, just for a moment. Arthur felt a warm sensation of cameraderie rising somewhere in his chest. He'd sent the rest of his entourage on ahead that morning, and now it was just the two of them, riding side by side down the peaceful road home.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, the road directly in front of them exploded.

Arthur's horse reared, neighing loudly, and it was the strong-spirited charger his father had given him when he came of age so it took all of Arthur's strength to force it back under control again without coming off. Merlin, the poor idiot, had gone toppling straight into the dust as his horse bolted, and all he was doing was lying there coughing. "Get up, Merlin!" snapped Arthur.

Merlin did. "Nothing broken," he said.

"It would take more than a tumble from a horse to break your thick skull," said Arthur, relieved. "What on earth was that?"

"Hail and well met, son of the Pendragon," intoned someone ahead of them.

Arthur's horse flicked its ears and side-stepped skittishly in the dust; Arthur tugged on the reins, trying to remind it who was in charge. The stranger was impossible to see clearly, silhouetted by the afternoon sunlight and concealed in a fog of dust from the explosion that didn't seem to be settling. As Arthur watched, more dust leaped up and swirled around him. A sorcerer, then, as if there was any doubt, and what's more, a coward who wouldn't show his face. "Hail yourself, wizard," he said, reaching for the hilt of his sword. His mail clinked a little. "What do you want with me?"

Next to him, Merlin was on his feet and brushing himself off, but he went still when he saw the sorcerer. "Don't be afraid, Merlin," Arthur murmured, half under his breath. "It's not you he's after."

"I seek the one called Merlin Emrys," said the shadow in the dust.

Arthur blinked and said, "What?"

"That's me," said Merlin, folding his arms and hugging himself. "Um. Hello. What can I do for you?"

"Why do you want _Merlin_?" said Arthur incredulously. "What, don't you sorcerer types have any rubbish servants of your own? You can't have mine."

The shadow bowed. "Hail, Merlin."

"Uh, hail," said Merlin. "Do you mind getting on with it? We were hoping to make Camelot by dusk. You're sort of in the way."

"Tonight is Samhain night," intoned the sorcerer. "You are one of our number and you are passing through our lands. I come bearing an invitation. Share our new year. Join us in the circles. There is too little young blood to renew us in these dying days."

"_Renew_ you?" said Arthur before Merlin could open his mouth. "What the hell do you mean? He's not going anywhere with you, you old - you old _Druid._" It was the worst insult he knew, but the shadow-sorcerer didn't seem particularly bothered by it. Arthur glared, blinked the dust out of his eyes, glared some more, and said, "Wait, what, _one of your number?_ One of what number?"

"First, though, I do my duty," said the sorcerer solemnly. "It gives me no pleasure to harm a boy. Yet the Pendragon must die."

Arthur didn't even have time to yell or to finish drawing his sword; all of a sudden the world was erupting around him in fire that burned cold and hot at the same time. He heard his horse scream - a horrible sound, a horse's screaming, and he thought _just like a sorcerer, to go after the bloody animal too, it hasn't done anything_ \- and then suddenly the fire was gone, and Arthur's horse had thrown him and run away but he drew a breath and found it didn't hurt at all, and he looked up and Merlin was standing in front of him, holding both his hands upraised, a curtain of blue fire shimmering beyond them. "Get out of here," he snarled at the sorcerer who was still veiled by dust and shadows. "Get out, or I'll turn you into a smear on the road. You think I can't? I killed _Nimueh_."

"What?" said the sorcerer. He didn't sound ageless and solemn any more, he sounded taken aback and rather baffled. "It's a Pendragon. What are you doing?"

"I agree!" said Arthur loudly. "Merlin, what the _hell_ are you doing?"

"Saving your stupid life," said Merlin. "_Again_. Shut up, I'm a little busy here, you can have me executed later."

"Exe-" started Arthur, and then just gaped, while a thousand thoughts chased each other through his head: he's a warlock, he can do magic, he's doing magic right now, he's lied to me for months, who else knows, Gaius must know, _how do I keep this from my father_. "You think I'd have you executed?" he spluttered at last. "You - you utter -"

"_Later_, Arthur, seriously!" said Merlin, and then the blue fire vanished and the sorcerer said worriedly, "He hasn't got some kind of hold over you, Emrys, has he? Are you being blackmailed? You don't have to go back to Camelot, you know."

"I _want_ to go back to Camelot," snapped Merlin. "Camelot is my home. So you'd better get out of our way before I -"

"Well, but why are you doing this?" said the sorcerer. He seemed to feel he was being quite reasonable. "Look, he's a Pendragon. Really, he is. You do know what that means, don't you?"

"I don't care! Okay? I don't care! I'll protect him from you. I'll protect him from anyone. Protecting him is my destiny and nothing and no one is going to get in my way."

Arthur gaped at Merlin some more.

The sorcerer-shadow shook its head. "Then I am sorry, Emrys, for you will have to find a new destiny. You are strong, but untutored. Nimueh was ever too proud, and her arrogance was her downfall. You are not a match for me." The blue fire leapt and roared straight over Merlin's head while Merlin gabbled words that did nothing, achieved nothing, and Arthur was screaming again, screaming and he was going to _die_ here on the road to Camelot, and then Merlin yelled, "You can't! I love him!"

The fire stopped. Everything stopped. Arthur panted for breath and went to draw his sword, only to find that it was no longer in its scabbard.

"Oh," said the shadow sorcerer. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize. If he's your paramour then of course that changes everything."

The swirling dust finally settled, and the sorcerer stepped forward, pushing back his hood. He didn't look like an evil monster who tried to kill people with fire. He looked kind of like someone's grandfather. He was short with snow-white hair and smile lines around his mouth, and the only reason he'd looked tall in silhouette was that he'd been wearing a pointy hat under his hood. It was purple.

He was also holding Arthur's sword. He nodded at Arthur and tossed it back; there was no force in the throw but the sword still sailed through the air and landed neatly in Arthur's hand. Arthur stared at it, then stared at the sorcerer, who was now saying in friendly tones, "Terribly sorry, Emrys, I had no idea. You might as well bring him along to the celebrations tonight, then, I promise we'll all leave him alone."

"What?" said Merlin weakly.

"What?" repeated Arthur, and since he felt a little more confident with his sword in his hand he added, "I'm not his-"

Merlin stuck his hand out and grabbed his arm. "Why does it change things if he's my paramour?"

The old sorcerer blinked. "Surely someone's been teaching you these things? Isn't that old traitor Gaius still squatting in his lair at Camelot?"

"Don't talk about Gaius like that," said Merlin.

The sorcerer shook his head. "Very well, very well, but he's done a terribly poor job of teaching you, I must say." He took on a lecturing tone, sounding rather like Arthur's old swordmaster. "Power is a rare and terrible thing; to possess power is a rare and terrible responsibility. For the sake of the common peace, no witch or wizard may feud with another; such selfish angers have dread consequences, and there was a once a time when the plural of _wizard_ was _war_. To this end, it is forbidden for any sorcerer to cast spells of any kind upon a fellow's kith and kin, among whom a freely acknowledged paramour may be numbered." He nodded kindly. "You see? In any case, Emrys, if _you're_ bedding the boy I suppose he can't be as bad as all that, Pendragon or no."

"Er," said Athur.

"Yes," said Merlin firmly, giving Arthur a sideways glance that clearly said _Shut up!_. "He's not as bad as all that."

The sorcerer clicked his tongue. "If you'd said so right out we could have avoided all this unpleasantness. Never mind, never mind. Bring him along this evening and we'll make it up to the both of you with good sweet mead."

"I really don't think -" said Merlin.

"Of course," Arthur interrupted quickly. "Where's the party?"

The sorcerer gave him an odd look but said, "At the Henge, of course."

"Jolly good," said Arthur. "We'll see you there."

"See you later!" said the sorcerer, and then he winked out of existence. Arthur looked at the spot of empty air where he'd been for a moment. He tried waving his hand through it. Then he looked at Merlin. "Can you do that?" he said.

"Er," said Merlin. "No." He looked sort of worried - either that or constipated. "Arthur, look, I -"

"I suppose we'd better find this Henge," said Arthur. "There's one a little way east, isn't there?"

"I, yes," said Merlin. "About two miles, hidden in the forest."

"How do you know that?"

Merlin looked at his feet and mumbled something about ley lines.

"Well, we'd better get moving," said Arthur. "At least there's mead at the end of it, hey?"

"Arthur, you _prat_," said Merlin, "why the hell did you say we'd go?"

"Wasn't this whole stupid trip supposed to be teaching me diplomacy?" said Arthur. (It was. Arthur managed to insult three princesses in one evening - to be fair, one of them was Morgana - and Uther threw his hands in the air and sent Arthur and Merlin and a tiny entourage off on a grand tour of Albion to apologize to the other two princesses' parents and hopefully learn how not to offend everyone in earshot on the way.)

"You don't want to be _diplomatic_ with a gang of Druids," Merlin objected.

"On the contrary," said Arthur, "I want to be very diplomatic with a gang of Druids. Then maybe they won't try to, oh, I don't know, kill me."

"Let them try," said Merlin.

"That man said he was better than you," said Arthur. It was like fighting two enemies at once, or walking along the very edge of the castle walls the way Morgana used to dare him to: it was easier if you didn't think about it. Merlin was a sorcerer, _don't stop, keep moving._ "You're quite young for a warlock, after all, aren't you? They're usually really old buggers. You're probably not that good."

Merlin spluttered. Arthur ignored him, looked around to get his bearings, and then started heading east. After a moment Merlin caught up with him, still spluttering. "Not that good?" he said. "_Not that_ \- listen, you complete _moron_, I'm bloody brilliant, and if I weren't then you'd be in real trouble -"

Arthur tried to ignore the sneaking suspicion that Merlin was right. A lot of things that hadn't really added up over the last - gods, the last year, ever since Merlin came to Camelot - were starting to make sense - like the way heavy objects just kept falling on people when they were trying to kill Arthur, and the whole business with the lake, and who exactly had shoved Arthur's sword into the Questing Beast's neck when Arthur was pretty sure it wasn't him. "You could be better, though," he said. "That's what the old man said, wasn't it, that you're untutored? So it's probably a good idea to make friends with this lot and maybe you'll learn something."

"_Arthur_ -" said Merlin.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to be angry?"

_Just keep moving._ "No."

They trudged the rest of the way in silence.

It was already getting dark by the time they reached the Henge - which was a double stone circle, one inside the other, hidden deep in the forest. There were already people there, and the bonfire in the midst of the circles flickered and reflected strangely off the upright stones, as if they were not entirely real, or at least not all the time. Arthur squinted through the dusk and tried to count how many people were there. It was hard to do. He wanted to put his hand on his sword's hilt but that would have been rude, to show no trust. Beside him, Merlin broke the silence that had settled between them for so long and whispered, "Don't be afraid."

"I'm never afraid," said Arthur. Uther's son couldn't be a coward.

"Okay," said Merlin. "But, on the off chance that you _were_ afraid, there's not that many of them and I'm stronger than everyone except the old man, and he'll be running low after all that flashy stuff earlier. I mean, I don't think I could kill them all, but I could get us out of there."

Arthur nodded, feeling a little better and not wanting to say so. Merlin talked so casually about the possibility of killing them all, as if it were something he'd do without a second thought for Arthur's sake. It probably shouldn't have been as comforting as it was. "We'll be fine," he said. "They can't touch me as long as I'm your _paramour_, right?" He turned and grinned at Merlin, who looked startled and was _completely_ unprepared when Arthur reached out and grabbed him round the waist. "Come along, sweetums," he crooned, enjoying Merlin's expression, "let's go get some mead from the nice sorcerers," and he reached down and _squeezed_. The look on Merlin's face was worth it.

Everyone looked up when they walked into the ring of firelight, except for a group of girls who were giggling a lot and dancing together on the other side of the bonfire. Arthur stared - they were baring enough skin to put _Morgana_ to shame, and surely that couldn't be practical this time of year - and then jumped when he felt Merlin grab his arse in a seriously unsubtle reminder. Arthur glared at him. Merlin mouthed _paramour!_ and then said, "Oh, hi!" to the old sorcerer who'd suddenly stepped in front of them.

"I am glad to see you both!" said the old man. "I never told you my name: I am Govannon of the Wood, last of the priests of the old religion this side of the White Mountains, and these my followers. Friends! Among us tonight is Merlin Emrys, the one foretold!" The gathered sorcerers murmured and gave them interested looks. "Who's his mate?" someone yelled.

Arthur was not used to letting other people speak for him. "My name is Arthur Pendragon," he said loudly, "and -"

"- and he's my paramour," Merlin interrupted at once, and the people who'd been leaping to their feet sat down again, fireballs winking out reluctantly. Arthur heard a woman hiss _Pendragon..._ somewhere off to the side, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. Merlin grabbed his hand and held onto it. "Stick close by me," he muttered. "I don't like this, they might not all listen to Govannon's rules."

Arthur didn't argue. He had every intention of spending the evening sticking to Merlin like _glue_. He drank only a little of the mead they were offered - shame, it was good stuff, honey-sweet and strong - and kept his eyes peeled, watching the sorcerers watch them, while the two of them sat together on a log and Merlin talked to Govannon for a while. Eventually the priest announced he had to tend to his duties and went away to talk to other sorcerers around the circle. Then, one by one, over the course of the evening, each of the Druidic sorcerers came to talk to Merlin. They all bowed courteously and addressed him as Emrys - after a while, Merlin stopped looking startled by the name - and they all pretended Arthur didn't exist. It was a strange feeling, to be the one standing in the shadows, overlooked; a strange feeling to have people acting like he was just a side-effect of Merlin's presence, instead of the other way round. As the fire burned low and the moon rose over the trees, the girls - Aranrhod, Viviane, Luned - came over. They smiled at Merlin and flirted with him as if his supposed paramour wasn't sitting _right there_; Arthur scowled and leaned against Merlin's side, putting an arm over his shoulders, and Merlin stiffened and then relaxed into it. The last of them, Luned, gave Arthur an affronted look; he answered with a lazy smirk and tugged Merlin a little closer. Merlin didn't resist at all, just let him do it and kept talking about magic potions or something with a witch whose name Arthur hadn't caught.

"Not going to get anywhere, are they?" said a warlock sitting close by. Arthur turned. It was the first time all evening anyone had said anything directly to him. The man raised his goblet in a salute. "Alun," he said. "So you're the Pendragon's son, are you?"

"Yes," said Arthur.

"How about that," said Alun. "It's an honour to meet you, sire."

"Sire?" said Arthur. "You don't need to call me that. We're not in Camelot, you know."

Alun toasted Arthur with his goblet and then drank from it, tipping his head back. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve afterwards. "Think I do," he said. "I'm a Camelot man, see. Born and bred. I had to leave when the Purge happened, but," he shrugged. "Home is home. You're Camelot's prince and that makes you my prince too."

Arthur ducked his head, feeling inexplicably ashamed. He'd never met anyone exiled by his father's purges before. He'd never even given much consideration to the thought of exiles existing. "I'm sorry," he said, honestly, "for what my father's done. To have to leave Camelot seems - well, for me it would be the worst thing in the world."

Alun smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "It's been twenty years, sire," he said. "I get by."

At midnight or a little after, Merlin took Arthur's hand and tugged him to his feet. "Well," he said, "we'd better be going. If we're to reach Camelot before they send out a search party we have to start soon, right Arthur?"

"We can get there by dawn," said Arthur. "Hell of a walk, though."

"Never fear, my friends," announced Govannon gravely. "Look!" Arthur looked in the direction of the old man's pointing finger and saw his and Merlin's horses picking their way between the trees. Viviane was standing at the edge of the stone circle with her hands raised; she turned and gave them a smile. "Little Viviane is very good," said Govannon. "Very gifted. To a safe journey home, Merlin Emrys, and may we meet again. To you, son of the Pendragon," he bowed his head, "I hope I may yet live to see you crowned Camelot's king."

"Thanks," said Arthur. "I hope you do too."

Govannon laughed. "Go on, boys, go," he said. "Our celebration is not done, but we will finish it without you."

It was slower going through the woods on horseback than it would have been walking, but once they hit the open road again they speeded up. It was even rather pleasant, riding down the Camelot road by moonlight. Arthur yawned. "Homeward bound, after a _minor_ diversion," he said. "I've changed my mind, Merlin, you don't have to go in the stocks after all."

"Oh good," said Merlin dryly.

Arthur chuckled. "Nothing but the best for my _paramour_ -"

"You're never going to let me live this down, are you."

"Nope," said Arthur. "And if you try to run away and live in the woods with Luned then I'll follow you and demand you back."

"Wonderful," said Merlin. "Maybe I'd rather live in the woods with Luned than polish your armour every day, have you thought of that?"

"You use magic to polish it, don't you?" said Arthur. "I _wondered_ how you got that shine. Seeing how totally incompetent you are at everything else, I should have known you were cheating."

"It's not cheating!" said Merlin idignantly. "It's just -"

And then the road exploded _again_.

At least neither Arthur nor Merlin fell off their horse this time round. "Govannon?" Arthur called out. "What is it now?"

"Not Govannon," came a voice from the shadows.

"Who are -" began Merlin.

"_Alun?_" said Arthur.

Alun stepped out of the shade of the trees on either side of the road, and in the bright light of the moon Arthur could see his face was twisted up and streaked with tearstains. "I had a family," he said, his voice shaking. "I had a wife, a beautiful wife, I had _daughters_. I had brothers and cousins and parents and friends, and Uther burned them, Uther burned them all, because they sheltered me."

Arthur glanced at Merlin and saw his eyes flash gold as his lips moved. "Because they sheltered _me_!" Alun cried. "He threw their bodies in the charnel pit for the crime of being loved by a sorcerer, so tell me, _Emrys_," he raised his hand, "tell me why I should spare what you call yours."

Arthur didn't even think of reaching for his sword. "Alun," he called out, "Alun, listen to me, I'm -" A fireball hissed through the air and vanished inches in front of his face; Arthur felt the heat of it. "_Alun_," he repeated. "Don't do this."

"He won't listen," said Merlin beside him, his voice full of cold certainty, and he shouted words in a language Arthur didn't recognize. Arthur saw Alun's eyes go wide as the moonlight itself seemed to flare brighter around them, and then he simply - wasn't there anymore. There was a thunderclap as the air rushed into the space where Alun had been.

"Where did you send him?" Arthur demanded.

Merlin shrugged. "Nowhere. Everywhere. He won't be back." His eyes were still burning gold; they faded back to blue as Arthur watched, and the magic-bright moonlight relented a little.

"You - _why_?" said Arthur. "You shouldn't have done that. He was - he was angry, he had a _right_ to be angry, you heard him, he -"

"He was threatening you," said Merlin simply.

"I don't care!"

"I _do_," said Merlin, and he jumped off his horse and walked over to look up at Arthur from somewhere in the vicinity of his knee, resting his hand on the pommel of Arthur's saddle. "Listen," he said, "listen, I do. I do care. I care if someone threatens you. I care if someone tries to hurt you. I won't - I'm not going to let anyone touch you, not ever, no matter how right they think they are or _you_ think they are, because I don't care about that, I only care," he gulped, "I said it and I meant it, to Govannon, earlier. I love you. You might not be my paramour but you're - you're _kith and kin_ to me, you're everything that matters, I -"

Arthur leaned down in his saddle and kissed him.

Merlin was still for a long moment, his mouth not moving under Arthur's, and then he reached up and put one hand on the back of Arthur's head and his lips parted a little. Arthur took it as permission and kissed him harder, even though the position they were in was doing nasty things to his spine and probably to Merlin's neck too, and finally, finally, Merlin started to kiss him back properly, licking into his mouth, biting at his lower lip. Arthur gasped. Merlin stepped back and put his hands behind his back.

"What?" said Arthur, straightening up. He felt a bit silly still crouched over like that.

Merlin licked his lips. "That wasn't exactly what I meant."

"Oh," Arthur said.

"I wasn't complaining," said Merlin. "You prat."

"Oh good," said Arthur. "Come back here."

"I'm not shagging you in the middle of the Camelot road at half past four in the morning," said Merlin.

"I wasn't saying," said Arthur, and then, "oh, all right. Get back on your horse, then. Let's go home."  
_

EPILOGUE

"So can I call you my paramour now?"

"Shut up, Merlin."


End file.
